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With all the new Chaos updates coming out, I'm seeing a lot of Alpha Legion paint guides and the like coming out. I have heard about them in some of the Horus Heresy books that I've listened to. And, while their primarch(s) are very unusual, I don't see what makes them such a pull for people to want to learn more about.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

SG

-1 to hit when over 12" away probably draws a lot of attention.

Fluff wise, there's over 90% chance that you're Alpha Legion already but just don't know it... or maybe I am...

Who doesn't love killing loyalist scum for the Emperor?

It's that blue paint scheme.

I like that there is possibility that AL were originally loyalist (though after millennia of Chaos worship that probably isn't the case anymore).

I've base the entire fluff of my Deathwatch around being a Successor Chapter that was originally a loyalist group of Alpha legion that is "officially" UM successors using the Omega symbol as their icon.
The Omega symbol being both the upside-down UM icon and the opposite of Alpha.

There is so much mystery and deceit with AL that you can take their fluff anywhere you want to go.

 lifeafter wrote:
It's that blue paint scheme.

This too. Done right, that metallic blue-green is quite a pleasing scheme

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I think part of it is Marines are typically so overt and brazen, that having a legion that says,

"Hey... you know what might be better than announcing our plans? Doing them in secret!"

and then successfully doing what people outnumbered a million-to-one do in a war, and that's fight a guerilla conflict. Meme-worthiness aside, they are a secretive organization. Essentially 40k's uber-terrorists. They're always the first legion I think of when I consider playing Chaos again.

Yelling "For the Emperor" while you charge into a line of Guardsmen has got to be a giant mind-feth for them, you know, right before the Guardsmen die.

Wouldn't you like to know??

They're all sneaky and shiz. No one knows.

They're Captain America, but Hydra!

I would say the pull is the mystery and conspiracy's they sit in.

In fact conspiracy in general gives you a huge door to work with when creating your own AL army fluff. They can be chaos, loyalist behind lines, renegades that dislike both sides. You could have literally multi circle Venn Diagrams of all the sub groups with agenda's along with who knows what etc in your AL fluff army and its actually legit. AL would even pretend to be other legions at times in fluff. In 30k they even can acquire special units from other armies... Basically AL gives you a lot of flexibility in the creative department instead of the general boring army chapter rules.

There is a lot of X-File's mentality to them. Secrecy above all else even if it hurts them. The general vibe dealing with them is you invest in finding something only to end up with another conspiracy or mystery at the end of your ordeal. Its hard to know what they actually stand for from marine to marine, truth isn't something they invest in. I do think they follow orders though as that is something they can't ignore without the truth be known, but doesn't mean they can't fail at it. From what I recall the closest to truth is when 'Coils of the Hydra' tactic is deployed and all the normal AL heraldry starts showing up with colors etc for battle. Basically if that is put out, their done playing their shadow game and stating "You are already dead.....". 30k does well with this process with the first turn & reserve gimmick's along with the Saboteur.

Far as all the guides & interest, I think its just a general abuse of the rules AL have that people want for their main army in 8th, not that people actually devout to AL. People just want to paint them right so at least they'll do that much. But in actuality you could just paint your AL whatever your normal army is and say their AL and undercover with AL rules. And it plays out pretty much how it should even if your opponent is salty af about it.

easy....the paint scheme

 ServiceGames wrote:
With all the new Chaos updates coming out, I'm seeing a lot of Alpha Legion paint guides and the like coming out. I have heard about them in some of the Horus Heresy books that I've listened to. And, while their primarch(s) are very unusual, I don't see what makes them such a pull for people to want to learn more about.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

SG

I am Alpharius, that is all you need to know.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Wouldn't you like to know??

They're all sneaky and shiz. No one knows.

I never understood but maybe you can clarify as this is background - how 7-8 foot tall giants in titanic armor can be...sneaky...

 Frazzled wrote:

I never understood but maybe you can clarify as this is background - how 7-8 foot tall giants in titanic armor can be...sneaky...

I get what you are saying, but true sneakiness involves a lot of misdirection and waiting to act when attention is elsewhere, which is not impacted as much by size. Also, sound dampeners for the armor are also a thing.

 ikeulhu wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

I never understood but maybe you can clarify as this is background - how 7-8 foot tall giants in titanic armor can be...sneaky...

I get what you are saying, but true sneakiness involves a lot of misdirection and waiting to act when attention is elsewhere, which is not impacted as much by size. Also, sound dampeners for the armor are also a thing.

I am so tempted to make an alpha legion renegade knight or kytan

 Frazzled wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Wouldn't you like to know??

They're all sneaky and shiz. No one knows.

I never understood but maybe you can clarify as this is background - how 7-8 foot tall giants in titanic armor can be...sneaky...

I'm with you 100% on this. but I think they had to shoehorn a sneaky legion in somewhere.

Also, if the size thing bothers you consider this: many stalking predators tend to be much larger than their preferred prey, yet they can still sneak up on them.

And "sneaky" does not always mean "stealthy". AL use deceit and misdirected more often than true "stealth"

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Another great point. Ravenguard are the actual "stealth" marines, while AL are the "sneaky" ones.

 Frazzled wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Wouldn't you like to know??

They're all sneaky and shiz. No one knows.

I never understood but maybe you can clarify as this is background - how 7-8 foot tall giants in titanic armor can be...sneaky...

Strength that far outweighs their weight, though I've always taken it as 'they are stealthy for 7-8 foot giants in titanic armour' The biggest issue I have with it is their footwear, it would be impossible to drown out the clanking of their feet as well as their pauldrons clanking together.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Galef wrote:
And "sneaky" does not always mean "stealthy". AL use deceit and misdirected more often than true "stealth"

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It does with the Alpha Legion, their bread in butter is infiltrating other armies. Anyone that has read Legion will know just how stealthy they are.

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:

 Galef wrote:
And "sneaky" does not always mean "stealthy". AL use deceit and misdirected more often than true "stealth"

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It does with the Alpha Legion, their bread in butter is infiltrating other armies. Anyone that has read Legion will know just how stealthy they are.

Not really sure what you are disagreeing with me on here. Yes AL infiltrate other armies.... with deceit, misdirection, etc. They trick the enemy and "hide in plain sight", infiltrating higher ranks of leadership where possible.
Stealth comes in hand for this, but that kind of stealth is not the same as the "hiding behind a tree" kind of stealth

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 Galef wrote:

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:

 Galef wrote:
And "sneaky" does not always mean "stealthy". AL use deceit and misdirected more often than true "stealth"

-

It does with the Alpha Legion, their bread in butter is infiltrating other armies. Anyone that has read Legion will know just how stealthy they are.

Not really sure what you are disagreeing with me on here. Yes AL infiltrate other armies.... with deceit, misdirection, etc. They trick the enemy and "hide in plain sight", infiltrating higher ranks of leadership where possible.
Stealth comes in hand for this, but that kind of stealth is not the same as the "hiding behind a tree" kind of stealth

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OK so they are more of the "spies and treachery" type sneaky not the "I'm Batman in the shadows" type sneaky. So do they have spy networks and such or how do they operate?

Yes, they often recruit non astartes to create spy/terrorist operative cells.

Never played against them. Do they play like that?

Not to my knowledge, unfortunately. I do not play 30k, but to my understanding their rules for that may reflect them better.

To a degree. They're very adaptable, make reinforcements harder for the enemy and can essentially pinch other Legion unique units and some other stuff depending on if you use their special Rites of War (basically new FoC's).

 Galef wrote:

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:

 Galef wrote:
And "sneaky" does not always mean "stealthy". AL use deceit and misdirected more often than true "stealth"

-

It does with the Alpha Legion, their bread in butter is infiltrating other armies. Anyone that has read Legion will know just how stealthy they are.

Not really sure what you are disagreeing with me on here. Yes AL infiltrate other armies.... with deceit, misdirection, etc. They trick the enemy and "hide in plain sight", infiltrating higher ranks of leadership where possible.
Stealth comes in hand for this, but that kind of stealth is not the same as the "hiding behind a tree" kind of stealth

-

Because they encounter situations all the time where they don't have data in which they can hide themselves, like legion standard vox nomenclature or they come into unexpected contact with a third party that they have no data on, there has been many examples of that happening like in Deliverance lost and shroud of knight where they have to employ stealth for that very fact and in those instances they have had to employ 'stealth'. Its apart of their MO really, they by absolutely are stealthy as a legion.

What's compelling about the Alpha Legion has nothing to do with their physical traits (stealth, cool heraldry, etc.), but everything to do with their corkscrew minds. It is no coincidence they are the XX Legion. Although 10,000 years of Chaos turning everything up to 11 has ended up with them being more like a legion of Colonel Flaggs.

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:

 Galef wrote:

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:

 Galef wrote:
And "sneaky" does not always mean "stealthy". AL use deceit and misdirected more often than true "stealth"

-

It does with the Alpha Legion, their bread in butter is infiltrating other armies. Anyone that has read Legion will know just how stealthy they are.

Not really sure what you are disagreeing with me on here. Yes AL infiltrate other armies.... with deceit, misdirection, etc. They trick the enemy and "hide in plain sight", infiltrating higher ranks of leadership where possible.
Stealth comes in hand for this, but that kind of stealth is not the same as the "hiding behind a tree" kind of stealth

-

Because they encounter situations all the time where they don't have data in which they can hide themselves, like legion standard vox nomenclature or they come into unexpected contact with a third party that they have no data on, there has been many examples of that happening like in Deliverance lost and shroud of knight where they have to employ stealth for that very fact and in those instances they have had to employ 'stealth'. Its apart of their MO really, they by absolutely are stealthy as a legion.

I never claimed they DIDN'T use traditional stealth. I was trying ADD that they also use sneaky tactics in ADDITION to true stealth and that planning and subterfuge aids in their ability to be stealthy.
They cannot just be camouflage Chaos Marines, not with that paint scheme...unless the planet they are on is very blue-green and shining

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 Galef wrote:

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:

 Galef wrote:

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:

 Galef wrote:
And "sneaky" does not always mean "stealthy". AL use deceit and misdirected more often than true "stealth"

-

It does with the Alpha Legion, their bread in butter is infiltrating other armies. Anyone that has read Legion will know just how stealthy they are.

Not really sure what you are disagreeing with me on here. Yes AL infiltrate other armies.... with deceit, misdirection, etc. They trick the enemy and "hide in plain sight", infiltrating higher ranks of leadership where possible.
Stealth comes in hand for this, but that kind of stealth is not the same as the "hiding behind a tree" kind of stealth

-

Because they encounter situations all the time where they don't have data in which they can hide themselves, like legion standard vox nomenclature or they come into unexpected contact with a third party that they have no data on, there has been many examples of that happening like in Deliverance lost and shroud of knight where they have to employ stealth for that very fact and in those instances they have had to employ 'stealth'. Its apart of their MO really, they by absolutely are stealthy as a legion.

I never claimed they DIDN'T use traditional stealth. I was trying ADD that they also use sneaky tactics in ADDITION to true stealth and that planning and subterfuge aids in their ability to be stealthy

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Well you said they do everything but stealth to be stealthy is the reason why I'm disagreeing. They are a legion that uses 'stealth'.

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:
Well you said they do everything but stealth to be stealthy is the reason why I'm disagreeing. They are a legion that uses 'stealth'.

No, I said "sneaky" doesn't always mean "stealthy". But it can and often does mean that, just not always.
And AL are most certainly the "stealth" legion, but because they are "sneaky" rather than "beaky" like the Raven Guard, the other "stealth" legion/chapter.

So I think we are on the same page, you just don't like the wording I've chosen.

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